Things that happened
Say where you went and who came.
By the end of this lessonUse çûn (to go) and hatin (to come) in the simple past.
The idea
The simple past uses the past stem plus a person ending, with no di- or bi-. Çûn (to go) has the past stem çû: çûm, çûyî, çû, çûn. Hatin (to come) has the past stem hat: hatim, hatî, hat, hatin. With ew (he / she) the verb has no ending at all.
See it in a sentence
Duh means “yesterday”. This lesson uses verbs that take no object. Verbs with an object, like xwendin, follow a different pattern in the past and belong to a later lesson.
Build it step by step
- First ask whether the verb has a direct object. Going and coming are intransitive here, so the subject stays ez, tu, ew, em or hûn.
- Use the past stem and attach the subject ending. A vowel-final stem such as çû has linking forms different from consonant-final hat.
- For a negative, prefix ne- to the whole past form. Do not add di- or na-: Em nehatin.
| Subject | çûn → çû | hatin → hat |
|---|---|---|
| ez | çûm | hatim |
| tu | çûyî | hatî |
| ew (singular) | çû | hat |
| em / hûn / ew (plural) | çûn | hatin |
Take a sentence apart
direct plural subject
past negation
past stem + plural agreement
Do not carry this subject pattern over to past transitive verbs. Compare Ez hatim with Min tu dîtî: the latter follows the object-agreement pattern.
A common trap
Incorrect: Min hatim.
Correct: Ez hatim.
Hatin is intransitive here. Its past subject remains direct; the oblique-agent rule applies to transitive past clauses.
Grammar reference: Thackston, Verb tenses